Three Low-Carbon Lessons from China for U.S. Cities and Companies - @RockyMtnInst #outcomesmatter #energycodes

Three Low-Carbon Lessons from China for U.S. Cities and Companies April 24, 2017 | By Michael Bendewald Each year in China, 10 billion square feet of towering urban residential and commercial building space are added to an existing stock that’s already well over 200 billion square feet. Decarbonizing this massive amount of building space is an important undertaking for China, which stands by its 2016 ratification of the Paris Agreement. Not surprisingly then, U.S. cities and companies can take lessons from emerging policies and approaches in China that aim to drive down the energy intensity of every building. According to Rocky Mountain Institute’s Reinventing Fire: China , investments in the energy performance of Chinese new and existing buildings can decrease carbon emissions 1.2 billion tons by 2030—equivalent to 3.8 percent of the total global carbon emissions in 2015....